I moved to a new city a few years ago and began to slowly increasing my cycling commutes. It got to the point where my car and motorbike were used about once per month each so I ended up selling them off. Despite not using them I was so used to having them that it felt like a mistake at the time - but it has surprised me that I've been fine. It has changed my views on cities immensely as far as the detrimental effect that private cars have on them. The needless traffic noise, emissions, energy expenditure, space required, cost of fuel and parking etc just doesn't seem to make sense - when I never gave it any thought previously.

To combat such problems a number of cities are moving towards being car free or reducing cars in the inner city. Some very successfully. I never realised that european cities like Amsterdam have a fairly short history of being cycling/pedestrian-centric where now over 60% of inner city trips are made by bike;

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In the Netherlands in the late 1960s, for example, automobiles had taken over the world's most famous cycling city, Amsterdam. 'Cars were everywhere,' says Pete Jordan, city resident and author of In The City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist.

'Even just finding a place to park your bike was difficult because there were cars parked on the sidewalks and on the squares. It was extremely dangerous—there were more than a 100 traffic deaths per year at the beginning of the 1970s, including a great many children ... now we have three or four or five, so it's a tremendous difference from how it was at its lowest point.'

The above opinion article goes on to make some further associations between less cars and increasing wealth (which i'm not sure follows - the increased wealth could easily come first):

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The six most walkable cities in the US are 38 per cent wealthier, they have a higher GDP than the rest. So it's a significant factor of competition between cities now that if you really want to progress and facilitate the knowledge economy, then you must make walkable, transit-oriented areas. If you don't, you won't be competitive; you will slowly decline the way Detroit has, because it's just a consumption-oriented city now.' http://www.abc.net.au/radionational...arning-to-live-without-the-automobile/6628768

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Those cities cited are of course the densely populated and prime to improve public transport/short commutes by foot/bicycle.

I was wondering what locals of other cities have experienced as far as the above interventions/town planning to reduce car use in both terms of good and bad outcomes. What has worked and what has died in your local vicinity? Has it made your city a better place overall?

Did the same, sold my car after not using it as much as I used to, walking more and more, using public transport and/or taxis when needed. Most journeys in cars are definitely not needed. Walk to buy groceries carrying home in a back back. Healthier, happier, life is so much slower or more normal naturally paced

Noticed when I do walk I avoid roads and anytime I get close to one the noise and utter intrusiveness of it makes me turn away and find a more peaceful route.

To combat such problems a number of cities are moving towards being car free or reducing cars in the inner city. Some very successfully. I never realised that european cities like Amsterdam have a fairly short history of being cycling/pedestrian-centric where now over 60% of inner city trips are made by bike;

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Just a bit of further information about the history of cycling in the Netherlands.

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Cycling became popular in the Netherlands a little later than it did in the United States and Britain who experienced their bike booms in the 1880s, but by the 1890s the Dutch were already building dedicated paths for cyclists. By 1911, the Dutch owned more bicycles per capita than any other country in Europe. After World War II, however, much like it had in other developed nations, the privately owned motor car became more affordable and therefore more ubiquitous and the bicycle started to be squeezed out. Even so, the number of Dutch people cycling was very high compared to other European nations.

The trend away from the bicycle and towards motorised transport only began to be slowed in the 1970s when Dutch people took to the streets to protest against the high number of child deaths on the roads: in some cases over 500 children were killed in car accidents in the Netherlands in a single year. This protest movement came to be known as the Stop de Kindermoord (literally "Stop the Child Murder" in Dutch). The success of this movement — along with other factors, such as the oil shortages of 1973–74— turned Dutch government policy around and the country began to restrict motor vehicles in its towns and cities and direct its focus on growth towards other forms of transport, with the bicycle being seen as critical in making Dutch streets safer and towns and cities more people-friendly and liveable.

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For anybody who would like to know more about the facts and figures of cycle friendly Netherlands.

Ive gone from spending 3 hours a day in the car commuting to cycling to work recently (change of job).... although there are people I know work with who drive to work, despite the fact they live about 2 miles away.

Anyway, I feel so much more relaxed and just better in myself generally without my 3 hour daily drive (around the M25 - London Orbital, at peak time)....... Im keeping my car for the moment as its still handy for me to have a car on weekends..... but I have considered selling it, and using my VW camper van as my main vehicle.

Ive gone from spending 3 hours a day in the car commuting to cycling to work recently (change of job).... although there are people I know work with who drive to work, despite the fact they live about 2 miles away.

Anyway, I feel so much more relaxed and just better in myself generally without my 3 hour daily drive (around the M25 - London Orbital, at peak time)....... Im keeping my car for the moment as its still handy for me to have a car on weekends..... but I have considered selling it, and using my VW camper van as my main vehicle.

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Pretty much exactly the same. 3 hours in the car previously now to about a half an hour ride. The difference in how de-stressed I am when i get home is unbelievable. 10 years ago if you told me I'd be getting rid of my vehicles I'd have told you to bugger off . Probably fitter now than I was back then. And far better off financially

Pretty much exactly the same. 3 hours in the car previously now to about a half an hour ride. The difference in how de-stressed I am when i get home is unbelievable. 10 years ago if you told me I'd be getting rid of my vehicles I'd have told you to bugger off . Probably fitter now than I was back then. And far better off financially

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Well between my tax and my servicing I'm probably only about £1500 a year on my car..... but the £250 a month I'm not spending on petrol is very noticeable.

I think a cycling and motorcycle component should be included in our driving test here, because at the moment, drivers act so dangerously round both of these other road users.

I don't know if its the same elsewhere.

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Dutch motorists are also trained for interaction with cyclists as part of their driver training when going for their driving licence. For example, trainee motorists are trained to check and re-check their right-hand side for cyclists before making a turn to the right.

I decided not drive many years back because my eyesight, concentration and coordination just don't suffice to drive safely on the country roads in the UK. I mostly walk now, and I shudder to think how obese and cranky I would be if I commuted by car to work every day. Even car-pooling here in Scotland requires you to inform your insurance company that you are using a car for 'commercial purposes'. What a hassle. I walk about 2 miles to work and back, but fortunately my route takes me through a nature trail. Otherwise I take public transport, which in Scotland is an exercise in developing patience as the private bus companies make massive profits off of poorly managed services.

The only disadvantage is that it is difficult to escape to the Highlands without a certain amount of planning and expense. You'd think Scotland would recognise by now that bus services to the villages and glens that rely on tourism is useful to the local economy, but alas ...

The geography of where Americans live and work simply makes living without a car extremely difficult, if not impossible for, most of us. We are too spread out. My best friends live between fifteen and twenty miles from me. My work is ten miles from my house. The "good" grocery store (where I buy my organic arugula and shitake mushrooms) is six miles. I could cycle there - but I'd be risking my life if I did. And I'm a good, enthusiastic road cyclist with a couple of centuries (hundred miles in one day) under my belt.

The widely dispersed city architecture definitely has a cost - in terms of the expense of owning and running a car, the cost of the roads we have to maintain. It has costs in fossil fuel usage, our US balance of trade, and the environment. And it also has a time cost in that most Americans spend a lot of their lives commuting, alone, in a car. (Its also why talk radio is so popular with a certain segment of the population.)

But it also has a huge upside most Europeans seem to forget about: Housing in most of the US is incredibly cheap. In most cities you can buy a livable home for about $120,000 (roughly €110,000) What can you buy in Rotterdam or Birmingham for that kind of money?

With Seattle being very bike friendly and me working downtown I would love to do this but living 35 minutes away with 0 traffic (good luck with that on i5 north around boeing field) and the rain I think I'll stick with driving. Sometimes it's just nice sitting in traffic clearing my head before coming in or going home.

I recently moved into an apartment 10 minutes walk from my office - best decision I've made in a while. It doesn't matter what the state of the weather or traffic is, my commute is very low-stress.

I live in a part of the US Midwest that has very harsh winters and is not pedestrian friendly, so my girlfriend's old Subaru does get plenty of use in the winter. but in the summer I usually walk or bike where I want to go. When I need to drive I have my Fiesta 1.6L, which is a great car for traveling.

I think I love cars to much to discard them entirely - but I love living within walking distance to work and jot's great not having to depend on a car, with all the attendant expenses and irritations.

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